Olin, Oxford Junction watch as flood waters creep up

Though it seems folks along the Wapsipinicon River in Anamosa may have dodged a bullet, people in Olin and Oxford Junction just downriver are watching as floodwaters creep closer to their homes.

OLIN (KWWL) -

Though it seems folks along the Wapsipinicon River in Anamosa may have dodged a bullet, people in Olin and Oxford Junction just downriver are watching as floodwaters creep closer to their homes.

The rising waters of the Wapsi have turned the area of East Locust Street east of Harrison Street northwest into a lake. The road was dry as late as Wednesday night.

The deepest part of Olin's flooding lies over green space, as four houses and four trailers damaged in the floods of 2008 were never rebuilt.

Olin got help Thursday from Independence, which donated its extra sandbags to Olin.

The bulk of sandbagging, however, came Wednesday night, when volunteers gathered in Olin and made some 4,300 sandbags.

The original crest prediction for the Wapsipinicon River in Anamosa was 27 feet and has since decreased to around 22 feet.

Jones County Emergency Management coordinator Brenda Leonard said the drastic drop in crest prediction did create some extra scrambling, but in this case, she said, that's not completely bad.

"Yeah, it's kind of a bummer that a lot of people went to work, but rather than them having to clean muck and mud out of houses afterwards and lost possessions and insurance claims, you know, we just err on the side of being safe," Leonard said.

She said it's difficult to say exactly how high the water in Olin will get because there's no official flood gauge there.

She said the same problem lies on the Maquoketa River and would like to see more gauges in more cities on both the Wapsi and the Maquoketa.

"There's one in Manchester and then one in the city of Maquoketa, and that's quite a ways to go without any type of gage," Leonard said of the Maquoketa River. "You kind of rely on the cities in between. -- 'What are you seeing?' 'How much rain did you get?' -- but it's still just a guessing game."

There are approximately 10 homes in Olin that took sandbags Wednesday night. Homes closest to the rising water built sandbag walls around the lowest parts of their property.

As of Thursday evening, residents there and in Oxford Junction were hoping the water wouldn't get much higher.